Obama was the PERFECT political candidate. He was whatever you wanted him to be.He was change without the change. The first African American President. A President with a new face to implement all the same corrupt policy.The face of change.But, the puppet of the status quo.He isn't a leader.Remember: 
Galbraith/Reuters
Sen. Barack Obama pumps up supporters in Henderson, Nev., in the runup to the state's caucuses. Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama: You don't get what it takes to be an effective President.
"Government by adviser simply doesn't work," charged Clinton, seizing for the second straight day on Obama's pledge to be a President who inspires and provides a vision for the nation - not one who will make sure "everything's running on time" in the federal bureaucracy.
"Being President means being both CEO and COO of one of the largest and most complex organizations in the world," she insisted.
"George Bush assured us he could run the government by surrounding himself with the best people. And look what has happened," she said, pointing to the botched response to Hurricane Katrina.
The nation's faltering economy was the backdrop yesterday in the Democrats' clash over what the presidency entails.
"I know that we can get on top of this, but it's going to require strong presidential leadership - it's going to require a President who knows from day one you have to run a government and manage the economy," she said. "The buck stops in the Oval Office."
Team Obama hit back by saying Clinton sounded like she was running for chief office manager - not commander in chief.
"The truth is that we're not running for chief of staff. We're running for President of the United States," said top Obama aide David Axelrod, adding that the prime role of the President "is to provide direction and leadership."
He accused Clinton of missing the big picture. "I think sometimes there's a relentless pursuit of the little picture over there at the Clinton campaign," he said. "There are bigger issues at stake here."
Camp Clinton believes the argument plays into its key critique of Obama: He is a "talker" and not a "doer."
Obama's team went on the offense by mocking Clinton for saying during Tuesday's Las Vegas debate that she was glad a bankruptcy bill she voted for ultimately failed to pass.
"It may be acceptable in Washington to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from big banks and lenders, vote for their bill that hurts working families, and then say you hope it doesn't become law, but it's unacceptable to Americans," said spokesman Bill Burton.
Clinton countered that the bill she supported in the Senate was not the same as the one that died in the House in 2001. She opposed a more recent version of the bill.
With Nevada's first-in-the-West caucus set for Saturday, Obama and Clinton devoted much of yesterday to the meat-and-potatoes issue forefront in the minds of most Americans: the economy.
In the backyard of a modest home in the Van Nuys area of Los Angeles, Obama held a round table with four voters.
"My priority as President is going to be to restore a sense of fairness and a sense of responsible oversight in the lending industry," Obama vowed.
And Clinton assured voters she would not be the tax-and-spend liberal bogeyman that conservatives make her out to be.
"I have put forth very specific ways that I will pay for everything I'm proposing," she said.
msaul@nydailynews.com
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